Expiration date
by Theanimedude
Summary: Her death is as clear as the numbers on her neck. This is one fate Max can't escape.
1. Chapter 1

Expiration date- A Maximum Ride Fanfiction

My first one- bare with me!

Max POV

I stood up and looked at myself in the bathroom mirror and (Bonus!) saw my face staring back at me. Ever since the time we stayed at Anne's house, I'm still paranoid about seeing an eraser in the mirror. Fang, the Gasman and Iggy were doing whatever supreme being out there knows what after our flock split in two. We had recently been reunited, and though I mostly kept it inside, I was thrilled. Right now we're taking a short break at my mom's house after having just taken down the head of ITEX. Chocolate chip cookies, Total actually being quiet every once in a while (mostly because he's spoiled rotten) and being together again, along with the best mom I could possibly imagine and my half sister, Ella. I felt absolutely great, to say the least.

Back to the present: I rubbed the sleep out of my eyes and dried my recently showered hair with a towel. The Gasman was watching television, Mom and Ella were cooking, and everyone else was flying around outside. I still felt a little drowsy, so I decided to watch the tv with the Gasman. I walked up behind him where he was seated on the couch and ruffled his messy, uncombed hair.

"Morning, Gazzy," I said. He looked up at me from his seat on the couch and grinned. "Hey, Max," he responded. I sat down next to him and looked at the tv- and grimaced. "Ugh, Spongebob?" I groaned. "How can you possibly watch this?" Gazzy grinned again, saying "Well, nothing good is on." I frowned and tried to make sense of the nonsense flashing through the screen, but smiled inwardly. Gazzy was really happy watching tv, and the rest of the flock was having a pretty good time too. I wished with all my heart that I didn't have to save the world, and that my family could just be happy like this forever.

After a few moments, I sighed, bored and confused at why in the world a sponge would want a drivers license, and stood up to walk away. Gazzy watched me walk away, and I heard his breathing hitch. I turned to face him. "Is something wrong, Gazzers?" I asked him with a small bit of worry on my brow. Gazzy had the most dismayed look on his face, and he was suddenly up and running out the door before I could. I decided to stay inside until he came back in and told me what the matter was. Shortly, the whole flock practically tumbled in at the same time through the door, and Iggy was racing for the kitchen.

Fang nearly rammed into me as he grabbed me by my shirt collar and pulled it down. "Hey!" I yelled in protest. Angel had a horrified look on her face, and Nudge looked near tears. Fang let go of my shirt collar shakily, and walked around me to look me in the eye. "Anyone going to tell me what this is about?" I asked, a bit agitated that my whole flock knew something I didn't. Iggy ran into the room just then, with my mother and sister at his heels. Iggy had two hand mirrors in his hands, and he somehow walked right up to me and placed them in my hands. "Look at your neck, Max," Angel whispered. I was still completely confused, but I did so, positioning the mirrors so that they would let me see the back of my neck by looking at the reflection one sent to the other. I looked and saw a small set of black numbers, lined up next to each other.

Then it dawned on me. These were the same type of numbers that had been on Ari's neck- and they showed the date of his death. Come that time, he simply lost his brain's ability to function, and died right on the spot. Now numbers were on my neck. And the date was two days away.


	2. Chapter 2

Expiration date chapter 2

Max's POV

I am the leader of my flock. I'm supposed to come up with all the plans for fixing problems. But this… this was too much. I was going to die in two days. Everything else, I could take in stride, fire a comeback, deny, or discard. But my death was staring at me from the back of my neck.

I dropped the mirrors, and they shattered on the floor below me. I couldn't move, feeling speechless, frozen, and helpless. tears slid down Nudge's cheeks. Iggy stared in my general direction, and he was getting teary eyed, as well. Gazzy looked like he'd been punched in the gut, Angel was breathing heavily, trying not to cry. Ella and my mom were both silent and stunned, and even Fang was stone still, shocked.

I fell back, landing on my butt. "No," I whispered. "No, no, no." I didn't feel like crying in front of my flock, and I didn't feel like standing up. My legs were trembling, and tears slowly began to form in my eyes. I tried to push them down, and they stayed perched on my cheeks. Fang was rubbing my back between the wings, and Angel and Nudge each took one of my hands. Everyone was crying quietly now, except for Fang, who was holding back tears himself.

I hate emotional stuff. Mushy, hugging, sadness, you name it. I'm never even really thrilled when I'm happy. But here I was, crying into my hands in front of everyone. I hated it. I felt vulnerable, and still hopeless. I loved the feel of Fang's hand stroking my back, but I didn't feel comfortable at all. It was all over.

I suddenly stood up and bolted through the door, tears falling from my face and trailing behind me. I ran through the neighborhood until I remembered I could fly. That was when I jumped into the air and snapped my wings out. I flew away as fast as I could, didn't know where I was going, didn't care. If I flew far enough, it'd just go away.

_Yeah Max, because that works with everything,_ I thought. _You flew away from Fang a lot of times, but he's still back and with the flock. _But this was different. I didn't want to die.

I flew full speed, and eventually sopped. When I did, I landed shakily, and then just fell over. Was my body already starting to go? I grunted, and slowly stood up. I was in front of the last place I wanted to be and I only just realized it: I'd landed in front of the school.

I gasped, knowing that just by being near there I was in danger. But nothing happened for a little while. But then, suddenly, a man in a white coat ran out. I squinted and realized it was Jeb. I turned and started to run, but fell over again. Jeb caught up to me in a matter of seconds, and looked down at me. "Max," he breathed. "Why did you come here?"

I glared at him and said, "Oh you know, just visiting my FATHER. I just love you so much, Daddy." He stared down at me, and his face showed no expression. "The school's been shut down," he whispered. "Then why are you here?" I asked him, not believing him for a second. "I'm visiting," he said quietly. I snorted. "Why the heck would you want to visit here?" "I just kind of miss coming here, and remembering when I was your father," he said.

I continued glaring up at him, and he said "Max. What is that on your neck?" I choked, and then a fresh waterfall of tears streamed down my face. He sat me up, and I was just so tired and teary that I didn't stop him. He looked at the code on my neck and let go. "Oh," was all he said.

A good five minutes later, with Jeb staring down at me and me bawling, He looked at me and said "I'm sorry Max. I didn't put that code in." So. Jeb wasn't completely responsible. "I know you probably don't want to spend your last few days with me," he whispered. "Go back to your Flock. If you're out this far, they must be worried sick." He walked back towards the building, without another word.

I stood slowly, and took off once more. Not only had I cried with HIM in front of me, but I'd completely lost my sense of direction. This time I was careful to fly back towards home, flying slowly, tears falling down to whoever might have been below me.


	3. Chapter 3

Expiration Date chapter 3

Now that I have a subscriber, I know my story has at least been read. So now I move forth!

Fang's POV

I sat on the couch, feeling completely deflated. Max was going to die. She'd be gone. And she wasn't even here so we could do something about it. Still, what would we do? I moaned into a couch pillow, knowing that nothing could stop this from coming.

Iggy and I were the oldest, after Max. We should have been comforting everyone. But here I was, feeling hopeless and weak. I couldn't stop her from dying, and everyone knew it. I closed my eyes and swallowed down the tears beginning to form. Suddenly I felt a pressure settle on my leg. I opened my eyes and looked down. Angel was sitting on my lap, clutching Total to her chest. The both of them were staring into my eyes.

"I'm gonna miss her," Angel whispered to me. Total didn't even feel like talking. If I wasn't so depressed, I'd of gotten us a page in Ripley's believe it or not. I sighed and said, "Me too, kiddo." "Angel had her head in my chest, and tiny rivers of tears were dampening my shirt. "Doesn't she know?" she sobbed. "Doesn't she know how much her not being here is hurting us?" Total whimpered quietly, little tears forming in his eyes too.

Angel was crying. I couldn't take it. My head went into her hair and I began to cry, too. She was a little shocked at first, but she let me. There we were, a fourteen year old and a six year old crying into each other. I would have been embarrassed if I hadn't been so sad.

After a few minutes, Angel bolted upright. "She's back!" she shouted. Everybody's heads turned toward us, then everybody bolted out the door- just in time for Max to crash into me and send us both tumbling down. My breath left me in a quick "Oof!" and I landed on my back. Max kept going, even after she crashed, and landed a few feet away, uncontrollably flopping onto her belly. I stood up quickly, pushed down the small bit of pain in my stomach, and everybody ran to her. From where she was laying, the code was easily visible on the back of her neck.

She slowly rolled over, and her eyes looked up, and she saw everybody looking down at her. Her face had little wet spots on it, and her eyes were red. Max slowly tried to stand up, but fell again. She was either really, seriously, hurt, or just weak from the knowledge of her upcoming death. I picked her up into a sitting position and hugged her as close to me as I could. "Dang it Max," I whispered. "Why'd you leave us like that? Don't do that again!" Her head was resting on my shoulder, and I could feel she was a little bit surprised, but she didn't seem to care."Sorry," she whispered. Her hands slowly wrapped around me, and we just sat like that, in front of everybody, crying into each other's shoulders.

After a few seconds, everybody else was hugging us as well. Somehow, everybody managed to be touching Max in some way. Eventually, we stood up, awkwardly staring at each other. Well, more like everybody stared at Max, and Max stared at me. She sighed and said, "Sorry guys. I just had to… fly around a bit." We remained silent, and she took this as a cue to continue. "I ended up at The School." Everyone sucked in a breath simultaneously, and Max looked down at the ground sadly. "I didn't mean to go there. I just… was there." I grabbed her arm suddenly and said, "What did they do?" "Nobody was there," she whispered. "Except for Jeb."

Everyone gasped simultaneously. "Jeb?" Iggy whispered. Max nodded slowly, and said, "He told me he hadn't put the code in." Everyone was silent, until Angel said, "Well, at least your okay." "Maybe," Max said. "Until two days from now." Everyone held back another round of tears as we slowly walked back into Dr. Martinez's house.

Max said she needed to rest, so we let her go to her room. We sat in silence a few minutes until Iggy stood up, a look of determination in his eyes. Everyone turned to look at him, and finally he said, "Tomorrow might be Max's last day. We should make it her best." Everyone let the idea sink in, and we stood up, stacked our fists on top each other, (it wasn't quite the same) and nodded. We began planning what was to be Max's best day on Earth, eagerly giving new ideas and brainstorming. No matter what happened, this would be a day to remember.


	4. Chapter 4

Expiration Date ch.4

Max's POV

I lay there in my bed, but couldn't sleep. The flock had opted to let me rest, but I just couldn't force myself into unconsciousness. After a few minutes of laying there and trying to sleep, Ella quietly opened the door to my room and sat down beside me on my bed.

"You awake, Max?" she asked me. I rolled to my side and nodded. Ella had the slightest look of mischief in her eyes, but I saw it. "What are you up to?" I asked her. She smiled down at me and said, "Nothing." I knew she was lying, but I didn't feel like fighting her right then. I just sighed and rolled back to my stomach, waiting for her to tell me why she'd come in. Suddenly I felt my wing being touched through my shirt. Startled, I sat up and said, "What are you doing?" She smiled and said, "I wanted to feel it. Remember, I don't have any." I still didn't feel like fighting, so I lay back down and muttered, "Well you could've just asked." I let my left wing unfurl slightly, and she moved her hand across it slowly. It was actually kind of relaxing. Okay, not kind of. As she continued rubbing my wing, I slowly felt myself drifting off to dream world. She stopped just as I was about to get to sleep, and knelt down so that we were eye to eye. I looked at her and smiled. "Thanks," we whispered at the same time. We were kind of startled, until I said "Jinx." She laughed and said "Got me. But you know all the soda in the house is yours just as much as mine." I smiled and said, "Then could you just go downstairs and get me a Sprite?" she nodded and ran down the hall.

I lay there, waiting for her, momentarily forgetting that I'd be dying soon. I sighed as I slowly remembered, and she ran back in through the door, clutching the sprite in her hand. "Got it," She said. She set the can on my nightstand, and then suddenly hugged me.

I was stunned for a second, but felt my arms wrap around her as well. "Do you want to talk?" she asked me. I looked into her eyes and said, "No thanks. I just need to sleep." She nodded with understanding and walked out of the room. I lie down, feeling a lot more relaxed, and fell asleep.

Ella's POV

I peeked into Max's room until I was sure she was asleep. Once I was certain she was, I ran down the stairs into the living room and sat down next to Iggy on the couch. "She's asleep," I said to everyone. When I looked, I saw Gazzy was missing. "Hey," I said. "Where's Gazzers?" Angel shrugged and said, "I don't feel his mind anywhere. He just sort of left when you went on your little "put Max to sleep" mission." "I'm glad you did though," Nudge said. "Because it'd be really, really bad if she walked down and spoiled her surprise. Like this one time, when I ran down the stairs in our old house, like before Angel got kidnapped, which was really, really sad, we all missed her-" "Nudge," Fang broke in. "Not now, alright?" Nudge frowned slightly, but closed her mouth. Ever since the flock had started their break at my house, I'd gotten a huge, unpleasant taste of just how intense Nudge's motor mouth was. "Okay, so Gazzy's not here," Fang said. "But we need to keep planning this. Whenever he gets back we'll explain it to him." I nodded, fresh determination settling into my mind.

"I have an idea," Iggy spoke up. We all turned to him, and though he couldn't see us, he continued. He beckoned for us to come into a circle, which we did, our heads nearly touching each other. Iggy explained his plan to us, and we nodded. We all agreed-it was a great plan. Max would love it.

Max's POV

I woke up with a start to feel a cold rag whip over my mouth. "Hurry!" a slightly panicked voice said. "Grab her and let's get out of here!" I suddenly felt myself collapse into unconsciousness, and thought, _Great. Why now?_


	5. Chapter 5

Expiration Date Ch. 5

Sorry I haven't updated-homework homework homework!

Max's POV

I woke up some time later, in a pitch-black room with a cold, hard floor, with a sweet, musky scent flowing into my nostrils. I recognized the scent: it was a sleeping drug. I sneezed, and the scent went away, leaving me on high alert.

_Whoever did this is going to pay for it,_ I thought.

I realized, however, that I was unable to stand. I struggled to right myself, but something was holding me down. M y arms and legs were bound together behind my back, and I was lying on my stomach. I couldn't do a thing to get myself out of this.

_Crap!_ I swore, banging my head on the ground below, only to realize that, though I could not move my arms or legs, my body was no less immune to pain.

I lay there for a few moments, feeling helpless and stupid, until a small light filled the room. White walls, white tiled ceiling, everything was white. Including the white-coated man who walked into the room. He had red hair, and was about 5 foot 5 in height.

"So," the man said in a voice that made him sound around 21 or so. "We've found the little hybrid, eh? Wow- she's quite the specimen there."

I glared at him and said, "Um, if by specimen you mean 'ticked off human being', you'd be pretty close."

He looked stunned. "So it speaks!" he said, laughing, angering me further.

"'She' speaks," I said, gritting my teeth.

"Right, sorry, 'SHE' speaks. Looks as though you're mostly human." He said absently.

I glared at him, sparks shooting from my eyes. "Hello? Not in the mood to be examined. Why the heck am I here?"

He looked at me, frowning slightly, but then said "Right. We only just recently learned of your species-"

"We? Who the heck is We?"

He frowned again, saying, "Not your problem. Any ways, after we learned of the avian-human hybrids, we began researching you. Where you live, who's the best fighter, all the stuff we could find. After gathering a good deal of information, we decided that it would be best if we could research one of you. And seeing as you haven't complied to such a thing so far, we decided just taking you would be the best way to get a good look at you.

Long story short, you're ours for the rest of your life, and we're going to have a good time figuring out how you work. We have at least a year's worth of tests planned out, so be ready to call this place home for a little while."

I felt a small pulling sensation in my throat, and said, "Yeah, well,  
>I've only got the rest of today to live anyway, so you aren't going to get a whole years worth of experiments on me."<p>

I tilted my head forward slightly, and he gasped as he saw the code on my neck.

He quickly regained composure, though, and said,

"Well I'm glad you've told us this, Maximum. Because now we know to do the more, ahem, valuable, invasive, and, well, painful tests first."

My glare was pasted to my face, and I struggled to move, to hit him, to KILL him, but he picked me up in his arms and said, "Maximum Ride can handle one last day of life, can't she?"

Fang's POV

It didn't take long to find out Max was gone the next morning. Angel bolted upward and said, "I don't feel Max!" just as we were getting ready to go to sleep. Everyone but Ella and Dr. Martinez spread their wings and took for the heavens. I couldn't believe it. She'd left again, even after she saw how heartbroken we were. Either she left, or she'd been kidnapped. I clenched my teeth and balled my hands into tight fists until my nails made my hands bleed at the thought. Angel was searching desperately to find Max's mind, and we were following close behind her. We had just about given up hope when Angel yelled, "I feel her!" she froze in midair. We looked at her.

"What's wrong, Angel?" I asked her.

"I can't hear her thoughts clearly but she sounds- fearful. Desperate. Pleading. She's screaming for help!"

We all paled. Max was tough, always had been. If she was afraid, pleading, desperate, screaming for help- the situation was beyond hell. Max was in extreme danger. The thought made me feel adrenaline course through my veins, rage shot to my eyes, giving me a look of bloodlust.

"Lead the way, Angel," I commanded, trying to keep my composure, but grinding the words through my teeth.

Angel nodded slowly, flying Northwest to a barren wasteland, completely desolated, other than a rather large hospital.

"She's in there," Angel proclaimed.

We looked closely, and it didn't look much like a hospital. More like a smaller version of the school, but with different features. Like where the school had had flat rooftops, this place ended at the top with a pointed spire. Kind of like a medieval castle, only much smaller and a lot more recently designed. We charged glared down at the place, ready to storm it.

"For Max!" I shouted, and the Flock gave a battle cry as we charged towards Max's kidnappers.

_Hang tight Max,_ I thought.

_We're getting you out of there._


	6. Chapter 6

Expiration Date chapter 6

A.N. I want to thank everybody who has reviewed my story, my subscribers, (I honestly thought I'd never have any) and those who have faved me. You know who you are lol

Ummm, I guess I'll accept flames (and use them to roast marshmallows and weenies)

PLEASE keep reading!

Fang's POV

I cringed as I saw people holding machine guns run out of the castle/hospital place. The people were all wearing white coats, and most of them looked skinny or weak. In hand to hand combat, we'd have taken these guys down in three seconds flat. But they all were armed, and we were never great with dealing with firearms. Luckily we'd trained for this, and we scattered in five directions, hoping to give them trouble. We were shot at by at least thirty armed men and women (one with gorgeous red hair), and we avoided them expertly. As long as we kept a certain distance, we would never be even grazed by those constant bullets. But The longer we stayed out of range, the longer Max would be trapped.

I gritted my teeth, and yelled "Gazzy! Iggy!" My flock brothers nodded determinedly and pulled menacing homemade bombs from behind their backs. They flew above, and dropped the bombs towards our deserving adversaries. Every last one of them either were obliterated, or running away. "Awesome!" Gazzy cackled somewhat evilly. Iggy smirked and said, "I heard that. THAT was beyond awesome!"

I knew a few people had been killed by their bombs, but I didn't care. These monsters had Max. So what if a few died? We landed in front of the tall and wide door, after finding no windows outside of the building. The places largeness could really be appreciated from the front. _That many more places to check,_ I thought bitterly. We barged in, me knocking the door to the floor below, and looked around for our next victims. Though there was nobody around, I had a bad feeling that we weren't done yet.

Max's POV

How many needles had been pushed into me? I couldn't even remember. I was strapped down to a table (stained by my own blood) by my ankles and wrists, numerous holes lining up and down my arms and legs. I was losing blood fast, feeling myself groggily approach unconsciousness.

For hours I had been there, not letting horror show on my face, but letting it reel inside of my mind. I was begging, pleading, imploring for somebody to please help me. Now, after such a long time, I was hoping pitifully that my death would come before the date on my neck killed me.

Yes, I know, I sound like an emo poet. But that was really, truly how I felt. The immobility, the blood loss, the needles constantly pricking me in previously not pierced skin , all of it was (yeah, I admit it) far too much.

I held back the tears threatening to spill over my eyelids any second as yet another needle slid into my forearm. I didn't remember if this scientist guy was injecting something, taking blood, or what. Every time it was pretty much the same- the pricking feeling, the sting as the needle broke skin, and the dizziness from blood loss that followed. The scientist did it over and over, and every time I wished I was back home.

Suddenly, I heard an explosion. I would have bolted upright, but I was still strapped to the table. The scientist looked over to a monitor on the wall.

"What?" he whispered. Then realization crept across his face. "Ahh, looks as though some friends of yours are here. I struggled to lift my head, and saw through the monitor the most unbelievable thing. My flock had just busted down the front door to this little portion of heck. The scientist chuckled to himself, and said "I'll leave you alone for a moment, Maximum. I'm off to see to the capture of some extra specimens."

"No," I choked out hoarsely. "Not them. You have me, don't take them!" The scientist just smiled. "Ah, but there is so much to benefit from taking them," he droned in his horrible, malicious voice. "I have no reason not to capture them." That did it. I burst into tears.

Third person POV

Fang and the others were suddenly swarmed with burly security guards, who pinned them to the floor with little effort. They thrashed and practically hissed at their oppressors, as another man with a white coat walked in. He laughed horribly.

"Oh my, oh my, oh my." He said, with a voice full of suppressed demonic interest. "Looks as though we've got ourselves a whole school of feathery heroes."

"Flock," Fang snapped.

"Right, right," he said. "I take it you've come to rescue your birdy lady friend." Fang growled low in his throat.

"Give her back!" Gazzy shouted furiously.

The white coated man grinned and said, "One question. Why did you come here?"

Fang looked at him stupidly. "Um, to save Max?" he said unevenly.

"But why? She's going to die in- what, eight hours?"

"Fang locked his cold gaze on him. Max was watching from her room's monitor, begging the flock to save themselves, get out of there.

"You're right," Fang said slowly, his voice coming through a microphone in Max's room. "She's dying soon, probably at midnight. If we had just left her here, we'd still have our own chances. Because of her, though, we're probably going to die."

Max knew the words to be true as he spoke them. Fang was only saying what had been on her mind as soon as they had arrived. But- hearing it out of Fang's mouth broke her heart. Tears streamed down her face like small rivers, and she choked on her own tears as they slid down her throat.

"But-" Fang said, suddenly changing his low, regretful voice to a determined, powerful one. "I guess I'm just selfish. If Max is dying soon, I'd rather her by my side than in the hands of you cretins. I love Max. We all do. She held us together for half our lives, and she loves each and every one of us- because we're family. All of us. One huge, awkward, but loving family. And a family will always love each other!" With the word other, he snapped up ramrod straight, knocking the guy behind him to his butt. He took the man's gun as he fell and fired it every which way, killing everyone, but carefully avoiding the flock. The entire facility crumpled and fell, dead. They had won.


	7. Authors note

Authors note

The next chapter HAS been started, this story is not over. I just wanted to get that out. Sorry to disappoint you. I'll try to get the chapter up Sometime soon- once it's finished.


	8. Chapter 7

Expiration Date chapter 7

Max's POV

I stared at the monitor across from me with utter disbelief. The flock had just taken down the entire hellhole I was stuck in. But Fang… Fang never opened up like that. He was always into… well, you couldn't tell what he was into, what with his strong, silent demeanor. The most I'd ever seen him open up before now was when… he was kissing me…

But back to the present. He had just admitted that he loved me. He may have hidden it when he said that the whole flock loved me, but the thought of him loving me was amazing. I remembered that when I was with my mom getting my chip taken out, I said some pretty stupid things due to the valium that had been pumped into me. And right then… it felt like he had said those stupid things right back to me. He loved me. He LOVED me. It was like the chorus in a song that you just want to play over and over on your IPod because it's just so awesome. _Wow, I don't sound like myself at all right now, _I thought, just as I felt myself shift back into unconsciousness.

Fang's POV

We ran through every hall in the place, frantically looking for Max. There were so many rooms, so many doors, so many dead ends, so many floors- _Heh heh, that rhymes. _I mentally slapped myself and thought _Focus, Fang! Max may be dying as you speak- or think, you aren't really talking- _This time I really did slap myself. We kept searching for her, but we couldn't find her. I finally got desperate.

"Max!" I shouted. "If you're alive, yell!" No response. I began to panic. _Where is she?_

I thought, turning another corner. I finally noticed one room with a dim light coming through the space between the door and the floor. I ran to it, threw the door open and gasped at the sight before me.

There she lay, strapped to a table with Velcro on her wrists, elbows, knees, and ankles, unconscious. Her hair was streaked red with her own blood, and holes lined up and down her entire body. She was wearing a sweatshirt with the sleeves rolled up to her shoulders, and denim shorts- both were bloodstained as well. I ran to her, ripped the straps open, and picked her up bridal style. "Max," I whispered. "Please wake up. Please. Don't die yet."

She lay silent and unmoving in my arms. I felt torn between screaming, throwing her to the ground, or crying into her shirt.

"Max," I whispered again. "You can't die. What would Angel do? What would Gazzy do? What would Iggy and Nudge do if you died now? You can't leave us until your time comes! We need you. **I need you.** I-I love you." Tears threatened to poor down my face, but I held them in. I pressed my hand to her chest- and felt her heart kick. She was alive. But she was still bleeding, though it had slowed down. Either she was healing, or she was much, much closer to death. I carried her bridal style out the door and shouted, "I got her!"

The flock ran out the door frame from the door I'd broken down, and took off as soon as we got out. Max wasn't that heavy, but she felt a little lighter as we went. She really was losibg a lot of blood. We had to get her to Doctor Martinez. She would save her. She WOULD save her. Angel and Nudge both were weeping as they flew, Gazzy was bawling, and Iggy was utterly silent, a look of devastation on his face. We flew faster, approaching our goal, wanting to save Max's life for at least the next few hours. As we flew, I felt her shift in my arms. A word, almost silent, so quiet I wasn't certain I heard it, escaped her lips.

"Fang," she whispered. "I love you too." My heart swelled as I looked down at her face, and saw the same, unmoving expression I saw before. I clenched her ever so tighter, and almost smiled. But the moment passed, and we flew even faster toward our goal.

As we touched down, Ella and Doctor Martinez were waiting eagerly for us. They saw Max, lying limp in my arms, and gasped.

"Is she..?" Ella asked breathlessly.

"She's not dead yet," Gazzy said. "But she really needs help!"

Doctor Martinez slowly nodded, in shock, by the looks of it. I took Max inside, the others following. I looked to Doctor Martinez grimly.

"What can you do?" I asked her, my voice cracking.

She shook her head and said, "I-I don't know. The best I can say is we give her a lot of blood after we patch her up."

Iggy was already beside me, holding a huge box of bandages. He ripped the box open, and we all started hauling out bandages. By the time we were done, Max looked like Frankenstein, her arms and legs completely covered by bandages. We left one hole open, though, so that Doctor Martinez could give Max a transfusion.

"I know my blood won't work," Doctor Martinez said slowly. "But taking too much from one of you could make you die instead. If I could ask three of you to give about a pint of blood…"

I was already rolling my sleeve up. After a brief debate, Iggy and Nudge decided to give theirs, too. After we got to Doctor Martinez's workplace, we ran into the nearest room with a machine for taking blood, Max's head resting limply on my shoulder as I carried her. Shortly, we had each had blood taken and had put our blood into max's IV to inject it into her. Her heartbeat seemed to pulse for a second, and her leg shot out from the bed she was laying on. We held our breath. Then, slowly, her chest started to rise and fall with the familiar rhythm of breathing. We sighed with relief and smiled.

"She lives," I whispered.

We thought everything was finally going to be alright- until about 5 hours passed. Then Max would be gone. We all knew it, but we were so happy Max was still alive for the time being. Just then, the door to the room we were waiting in burst open. And there stood the last person we wanted to see- Jeb Batchelder, with a scalpel in one hand and a horrible glint in his eyes.


	9. Chapter 8

a/n/ I'm terribly sorry to inform you that I've decided to quit writing this story- as soon as it's over. It won't be at least until the end of the next chapter. I wonder if any off you dropped your jaws to the floor just then… heh heh, aint I a stinker. Ahem. On to the next chapter. (Flames will be used to fry my school and burn it to the ground **MWAHAHAHA**)

Expiration Date Chapter 8

Fang's POV

We all sucked in a breath. _Dang it! _I thought. _I thought maybe, just maybe, we'd be out of hell for a couple minutes. _The flock and I fixed a glare on Jeb, still holding the scalpel and matching our glares perfectly.

"**Who did this**?" he ground out with an uncharacteristic malice. "Who did this to my daughter?"

I glared at him harder, more anger coursing through me. "I don't think that would be any of your concern, Jeb," I told him, with icicles dropping off my every word.

"Are you kidding me, you brat?" he exploded. "Maximum is lying on a hospital bed, bandages covering every little part of her limbs, not to mention she could be dead within the next few hours due to two possible causes, and you're telling me it's none of my ******ing** business?" (Censorship instead of a two hour lecture)

"Little ears, Jeb," I said. Angel grinned slightly, and then remembered that Max's life was on the line.

Jeb looked mad enough to rip my head off, but said coolly, "Who. The. ****. Did this?"

"Dead men," I ground out. "I don't know why you'd want to know. It's not like you care about her or anything."

Jeb looked at me and said, "I may not have given her paternal care, but she's needed to save this world. Her death would be the end of all of us. Which is why-" he held up the scalpel, "-I brought this."

We stared at him for some time, and then Iggy whispered, "You better start talking, Batchelder. If you can save Max, you had better tell us how."

Jeb nodded briefly, and said "I didn't put the date into Max's genetics. Whoever did left out some important additives from the sequence. The code wasn't completely embedded, and can be removed. So," he said, and I felt the moment of truth approaching. "Do you trust me enough to let me try?"

Silence fell into the room. We looked at one another, and Doctor Martinez looked torn. Here was a chance at saving her daughter's life, in the hands of a two-faced son of a *****. Should we take it? Eventually I looked down at Max.

I sucked in an icy breath, and said "I'd give anything to bring her back… she's going to die either if you fail, or if you don't do it. So… I guess I'd like to give it a go."

Six heads nodded slowly, almost silent. Jeb nodded grimly.

"Right, then," he said. "First thing I need to do is make sure she doesn't wake up… or wake up knowing what's going on."

I thought for a second, and a wry smile crept across my face. "We need some valium."

Max's POV

I woke up, and wanted to bolt upright for half of a second- but then decided it didn't matter. _Why did I want to do that? _I thought. _Lalala… _Everything felt so… calm, for once. I looked around and saw my flock, looking down at me worriedly. "Did I miss something?" I asked, thinking, _Oh crap, I sound like I'm drunk,_ but discarded the thought a second later. _Lalala. _

Gazzy shook his head and said "H-how do you feel, Max?"

I looked down, and saw a blanket covering me. "I'm feeling reeeealy good, Gazzy." I stared hard at the blanket for a few seconds and then said, "Does this come in green? I'd like it green."

Fang looked like he was trying not to laugh, but he had little lines where tears had been. "Don't cry, Fang," I slurred. "The chips' out, right?"

"Yes, Max," Fang said. "The chips' out."

Suddenly I realized- the chip had been out a long time. "Do I have valium in me?" I asked, a little frightened. "Because if I do, that would be… bad."

Fang nodded. "Yes, Max, you have valium in you… because you couldn't sleep. Go back to sleep."

This made perfect to me, lay my head back down and went back to sleep, _Lalala._

Fang's POV

I watched Max go back to sleep, a little disappointed that she hadn't said anything stupider, but relieved she hadn't seen Jeb working on her head to get some sort of virus that caused the expiration date to kick in out. We all sat around Max, waiting for the operation to finish.

Jeb stared at Max, carefully picking away skin, and we looked away. Max was scary enough on the outside; we did not want to have to see her insides. We slowly left Jeb to finish his work, Angel keeping a mind read on Jeb in check.

We sat there for hours, twiddling our thumbs, with just half an hour until midnight. Jeb eventually came out, very slowly. He looked at all of us, a grim expression on his face.

"How is she?" Nudge asked, and Jeb looked at her and said-

CLIFF HANGA! DUN DUN DUN!


	10. Chapter 9

a.n. I'm so happy! So many people have subscribed or faved this! And this is only my first fic! I love the attention! Yeah I love it, I love it, I love it! …. Ahem. Anyways, thanks a lot for all the reviews. And sense most of them told me to update, I'll try to get this up soon. My school isn't flaming, yet, so I guess that's a good thing… (Read last a.n.)

Expiration chapter 9

Fang's POV

We sat there for hours, twiddling our thumbs, with just half an hour until midnight. Jeb eventually came out, very slowly. He looked at all of us, a grim expression on his face.

"How is she?" Nudge asked.

Jeb looked at her and said "She'll be fine. But she is going to be really tired."

I had to bite my cheek just to keep myself from exclaiming with joy. The rest of the flock jumped up and cheered, however. This was- what, the third time for the past few days I've seen the flock tear up? But this was different. They were so happy. I, however, though thrilled about the fact that Max was going to continue living, glared at Jeb, though it had much less intensity behind it then it had before.

"I suppose I should owe you a good deal of gratitude," I said, my voice steely. "But you owed Max her life at the very least."

Jeb nodded solemnly, and looked to Doctor Martinez. She smiled apologetically, and thankfully, at the same time.

"I really appreciate this," she said, her voice cracking. "But we'd really rather be alone with Max right now."

Jeb nodded again, and said "Good night, Valencia. Good night kids." He then walked out, without the slightest glimmer of a smile on his face.

With that, we piled into Max's room, staring at her eagerly. She was stil out cold, and the valium had probably worn out by now. "I wonder if he was telling the truth." Nudge said, and she opened her mouth to say more, but I lifted my hand to tell her to stop, and she shut her mouth quickly.

"Here's one way to find out," I said, reaching for her shirt collar. Just as my hand grasped the back of her bloodstained sweater, her hand suddenly darted and slapped mine away.

"Hold on," she said almost cheerfully. "I'm-still-sleep-ing!" I knew then that the valium hadn't run out.

We all looked at her funny, and I said "Max. We need to see-"

"But I'm still sleeping," she said, giggling.

"Then how come you're talking?" I asked her, patience running short. Silence.

"You're no fun," Max said, pouting like she did whenever I ignored her when we were little children.

I reached for the back of her shirt collar and pulled it down just a bit. The code wasn't there. We all breathed a sigh of relief. Max looked up at Iggy and said, "Can I have breakfast? Like, waffles? I'd like waffles right now."

We all looked at him and smirked. Iggy did so as well and said, "Sure Max. I'll be glad to make some waffles. About… maybe fifty for us to share?" Max nodded quickly, and Iggy left, Gazzy following to help him find his way back.

Suddenly Max shrieked "OWWW!" We all looked at her, stunned. She shook her head sheepishly and said, "I've been lying on my wings for hours." We sighed again, half from the slight stupidity, half from relief. Then Max looked at the clock- it was past midnight. "Wuh?" she said intelligibly. "What happened?" I looked down at her and said, "Well, uh we found a way to get the code out, so you, uh, should stay alive…"Max was frozen stiff.

"And when we brought you back from that hellhole they were experimenting on you in, you were going to die, so we patched you up and gave you some blood." I said, showing where a bandage ha been put on my arm.

Max looked up and whispered, "You saved me."

I shrugged, trying to sound casual, but tearing up. "Of course. We love you. We couldn't let you die."

Suddenly, Max was up out of the bed and hugging me, crying softly into my shoulder and saying "Thank you," over and over. This was the most good I'd ever done for Max. And I wasn't going the moment ruin it by taunting her. That could wait. Right then, I only felt like kneeling down and kissing her. Which I did.

Max's POV

I sat at the dining room table, not dead, eating some of Iggy's waffles that I'd apparently requested. They were awesome.

"These are awesome, Iggy," I said, after swallowing. Mom was really specific about swallowing before you talk. Iggy grinned and said, "Glad you like 'em, Max."

After teary talks with everybody, including Total, who apparently had been silent since two days ago (I guess the dog cares about me) we had all began eating a hefty supply of waffles. The whole time we were eating, Gazzy had a mischievous look on his face. "I eventually couldn't handle the suspense and said "What are you thinking, Gazzers?"

He grinned and tapped Iggy's hand, meaning _I'll leave this to you._ Iggy cleared his throat, and said sheepishly "Well, yesterday we had a big plan for your last day to be the best day of your life."

I smiled from ear to ear, and said, "I'm guessing me getting kidnapped didn't exactly fit in with your plans, eh?"

Iggy nodded, and said, "So maybe we should do today what we were going to do then…"

Third person

Max laughed with pure joy as she landed at the bottom of the huge water slide, a small wave going up at the bottom as she splashed down into the pool at the end. Doctor Martinez, Ella and the flock had brought her to an amusement park. Everything was, well, a little slower than flying, but still really fun. After all, they had only been to Disney once, but this place had much faster paced rides for thrills.

Everyone watched her get her clothes soaked (she didn't want to wear a bathing suit because of her, eh, extra appendages) and laughed. Fang watched Max, still relieved she'd continued to live, and knowing she was so happy made him happy too. After all, they were family. One, big awkward, but loving family. And a family will always love each other.

The (corny) End

So what did you think? OK for my first one? I'm not wasting any time starting my next- you'll have to read it to learn what it's about!


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